1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to floor care appliances such as an upright vacuum cleaner and, more specifically, to a vacuum cleaner having symmetric twin agitator chambers each having a rear discharge port and a separate air path from each of the agitator chambers to the respective rear discharge port. The vacuum cleaner is also equipped with a pair of counter-rotating rotary agitators and front and rear suction ducts.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
Upright vacuum cleaners are well known in the art. Typically, these upright vacuum cleaners include a vacuum cleaner housing pivotally mounted to a vacuum cleaner foot. The foot is formed with a nozzle opening and may include an agitator mounted therein for loosening dirt and debris from a floor surface. A motor may be mounted to either the foot or the housing for producing suction at the nozzle opening. The suction at the nozzle opening picks up the loosened dirt and debris and produces a stream of dirt-laden air which is ducted to the vacuum cleaner housing.
It is known in U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,418, owned by a common assignee, to provide forward and rearwardly disposed suction ducts that extend along the front and back sides of a suction nozzle to lead suction air to a rearwardly extending fan communicating duct. It is also known from this patent to make an outer covering piece of a communicating duct portion extending between the front and back sides of the suction nozzle removable. It is also known from this patent to make the agitator tunnel an inner structure in its nozzle. It is also generally known to provide a hood structure which either sits on its underbody or obviously overlaps it.
However, while the foregoing suction nozzle arrangement in the '418 patent has produced satisfactory results and has been commercially successful, consumer demand has forced floor care appliance and vacuum cleaner designers to design floor care appliances and vacuum cleaners with additional features and/or performance. The present invention fulfills this need by providing a vacuum cleaner having an improved suction nozzle configuration comprises of front and rear rotary agitators, twin agitator chambers, separate air paths extending from the agitator chambers, and suction ducts disposed along the front or rear edges, or both, of the agitator chambers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved suction nozzle configuration.
It is another object of the invention to provide a suction nozzle which includes forward suction nozzle ducts.
It is yet still a further object of the invention to provide a suction nozzle which includes rearward suction nozzle ducts.
It is another object of the invention to provide a suction nozzle which includes forward and rearward suction nozzle ducts.
It is yet still a further object of this invention to provide a suction nozzle with either front and/or rearward ducting which may be accommodated in a nozzle having as a structural requirement an inboard duct cover.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a suction nozzle having an improved agitator configuration.